I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a metal-organo complex having at least one sterically exposed metal-metal bond, .[.and having.]. .Iadd.herein represented by .Iaddend.the structure: EQU R.sub.n M M'R.sub.n
wherein R represents a ligand which contains one or more atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur or phosphorus; n is an integer of from 1 to 3; M and M' each represent the same or a different transition metal; and the symbol
represents at least one sterically exposed metal-metal bond.
This invention also relates to a method of synthesizing the above metal-organo complex.
II. Description of the Prior Art
In the early nineteen fifties a new class of organo metallic compounds was discovered, starting with dicyclopentadienyl iron or "ferrocene." Analogous compounds were seen prepared, similarly complexing a great many of the transition metals. Particular attention was focused on the titanium complex, reported to be dicyclopentadienyl titanium, and also referred to as "titanocene." At first this was thought to be a simple "sandwich" configuration, its essential structure being the symmetrical binding of the central metal atom to all five carbon atoms of each cyclopentadienyl ring.
In the mid sixties, it was found and confirmed that the material reported to be dicyclopentadienyl titanium was actually a dimer.
By 1970, it was reported (H. H. Brintzinger and J. E. Bercaw, JACS 92:21 pp. 6182-6185) that the metal-organo complex which various investigators had isolated, was not [(C.sub.5 H.sub.5).sub.2 Ti].sub.2 as had been erroneously reported, but its stable isomer, the hydride, [(C.sub.5 H.sub.5)(C.sub.5 H.sub.4)TiH].sub.2.